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Cuomo Calls Vote Results ‘Big Victory’ for New York

Facing an increasingly worrisome budget and eager for additional political allies, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday celebrated Democratic triumphs in several important local government races, calling the election results “a big victory for the people of the state.”

In an interview on an Albany radio program, the governor lavished praise upon Democrats who captured county executive seats in Suffolk and Erie Counties and won the mayoral race in Yonkers. Mr. Cuomo had campaigned in person for each candidate and had also endorsed dozens of other Democrats in bids for local offices.

“I think there was a common denominator,” Mr. Cuomo said on WGDJ-AM. He said the candidates he supported “stressed the ability to manage government, the efficiency and the effectiveness of government, without sacrificing the goal and the purpose and the raison d’être of government.”

Mr. Cuomo raised some eyebrows with his retort to the radio program’s host, Fredric U. Dicker of The New York Post, who suggested that while the governor was very popular with voters, New York’s government was not seen as favorably.

“No,” Mr. Cuomo replied. “I am the government.”

The governor’s comment caused a stir — even inspiring a political newspaper, The Capitol, to post on its Web site a cellphone ring tone consisting of Mr. Cuomo’s four-word declaration.

The local elections on Tuesday were dominated in many corners of New York by concerns about how to balance local government budgets, which have been strained by the weak economy’s limited tax revenues. In Albany, the Cuomo administration says markets are so unsettled that it can no longer accurately project tax revenues, so it has postponed releasing overdue details about the state’s financial condition.

The governor’s budget office failed to release its midyear financial update by the end of last month and also missed the deadline last Saturday to release financial projections for the coming fiscal year.

The Cuomo administration has said it is postponing these reports because of what Robert L. Megna, the budget director, described in a statement on Monday as “the volatility of the market and dynamic nature of the situation.”

The Democratic minority in the State Senate is estimating a budget shortfall of $249 million this fiscal year, and a gap of $3 billion in the next, up from the $2.4 billion gap that the Cuomo budget office previously projected.

Budget officials said Wednesday that they still did not have a timetable for releasing updated financial figures, and Mr. Cuomo would say only that the figures, when they are finally released, would be “grim.”

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t say the numbers are worrisome and doesn’t say the numbers are dropping off rapidly, which is mirroring what’s happening nationwide,” he said.

Having picked up new allies in several local government posts as a result of victories on Tuesday, the governor is now moving to strengthen his relationship with another set of elected officials.

A spokesman said Wednesday that Mr. Cuomo would travel to Puerto Rico on Friday to attend a conference of Hispanic lawmakers. The appearance, on the 315th day of Mr. Cuomo’s administration, would be his first official trip outside the state since his inauguration.

Mr. Cuomo will join other elected officials at the conference, including the Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, who sponsored a conference in New York City last month for the state’s Hispanic community.

Scott Reif, a spokesman for Mr. Skelos, said the senator viewed the conference in Puerto Rico “as an opportunity to continue his two-way conversation with the Hispanic community about what the Senate Republican majority should be focusing on next session.”

A version of this article appears in print on November 10, 2011, on page A32 of the New York edition with the headline: Cuomo Calls Vote Results ‘Big Victory’ For the State. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe